[Claire]

[plntfood]

Though Mathias doesn't mind caring for Sam at all, has come to love it, in fact, he can't deny that he does enjoy his mornings alone. When Sam wants to stay with Lucy and when the dogs want to stay with Sam, he's able to take his scuba equipment down to the ocean and go diving for as long as it holds his interest. The water is still the most

Comments

[lucked]

"Hey, Mathias," Claire replies with a slight laugh and an eager shake, one no less than giddy at the thought of actually being able to dive deep down, and probably not entirely on her own, which is twice the comfort. After all, without previous experience of her own, and with her newfound mortality, she wouldn't want to end up making a false turn that makes her first adventure also her last- the point isn't to put herself in a great deal of danger, but instead to extend her experiences to where they haven't been before. "I'm Claire. And no, I... haven't gone diving before at all, I'm afraid. Used to live in Texas, so we weren't exactly close to the best diving waters around, if you know what I mean."

Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, she continues to beam, widely enough that her cheeks ache with the effort. "But if you would be willing to, I don't know... lend me and possibly help me out with that extra set? I know it's a lot to ask, and I don't have terribly much to offer- unless you happen to like taping film, because I do have a camcorder and several blank tapes, you could totally make memories that you could replay on the television in the rec center, I don't know. Or I bake a mean cupcake. Seriously. If any of that would be interesting to you," she went on, tone a little wheedling at the end as she tilted her head, trying to gauge his interest.

[plntfood]

As her tone changes, Mathias can't help but smile. There are people on the island who have wanted to learn, but he isn't sure he's met anyone so willing to trade something with him for some diving lessons. And normally he doesn't worry about needing anything in return, but the mention of a camcorder is interesting. There are things he wishes he had on tape already, parts of his life from the island he'd love to remember and if he goes, the one thing he does want is for Sam to have something of his. Something from him.

"I might take you up on the camcorder," he says, but then he shrugs. "But I would be happy to teach you. I love to dive." And more than he loves diving, he loves to share it with others. It's how he'd met Amy and Stacy in the first place, sharing his tank with them so they could see the wrecked ship they'd come for.

"My hut is close," he says. "We can take a look at the equipment if you like, make sure it would fit you." He's almost positive it will, but he'd like to be sure before he promises that he can take her out.

[lucked]

Even though Claire suspects that most people on the island, being as kind and accepting as they are, wouldn't bother requiring a tape or camcorder from her in exchange for imparting knowledge, there's something about being capable of offering up her own half of the bargain that leaves Claire feeling better about it all. The camcorder itself might only be an island gift, but it felt good to offer something up for the auction, felt good to give island-bound film enthusiasts a chance to explore their trade, and it's the sort of thing meant to be shared, anyway. A way to put memories into physical form, tuck them away to be reviewed at a later date. So Claire beams, with every intention of handing a couple of tapes over later.

"Definitely take me up on the camcorder whenever you'd like; I should be using it more often than I do, but I obviously get distracted. By things like diving, even," she laughs, crossing her arms over her chest as a breeze slips by. "But... yeah, I would really like that, to take a look at the equipment and stuff. I always thought these things were kind of one-size fits all. The masks, I mean."

She paused, then smiled, with a touch of a grimace in the expression. "Then again, I guess I'm kind of kid-sized, so maybe I'd be an exception."

[plntfood]

"They can be adjusted," Mathias answers with a laugh, because while Claire is definitely on the small side, he thinks the mask and the belt will fit just fine. "And if they don't fit, I think we might be able to convince the box to give us something if we're patient." He's good with the box, very patient when he needs to be, but he'd rather not have to do that if they can avoid it.

"Do you swim often?" he asks as he unhooks the belt and the tank so he can carry them back. It's always easier to teach someone to dive when they're already a strong swimmer, but he isn't against teaching swimming lessons either. However, people are less likely to feel claustrophobic under the water if they're already comfortable there.

[lucked]

"The box absolutely hates me, but hey, I've got patience in spades," Claire grins in return. It's true enough, though her outfit that day doesn't show it, a white lacy blouse being understated enough to escape most notice. "For the first month or so that I was on the island, that box would not give me anything that wasn't completely covered in sequins. And then after that, it kind of had a bright neon orange period, so I walked around looking like a construction worker for a while. But, wearing embarrassing fashions is one thing, and not having the proper gear for diving is something else entirely."

Glancing down as Mathias starts collecting his gear, Claire shifts her weight, unsure how much she should be intervening right now, if at all. "Do you need help with any of that?" she asks, uncertain, hoping that she can be useful in some way. "And uhm, I swim a lot more since I've gotten here, I guess. Not good enough to race, but definitely good enough to get where I'm trying to be."

[plntfood]

When she offers, Mathias holds out the flippers, not wanting to shove all his gear in her direction the very first time they've met. He'd managed to get it all down to the beach on his own, so he can manage to get it back home, but he does appreciate the offer to help.

"That's good," he says, about the swimming, then begins to head back up the beach toward the hut. "That would definitely have to be the first step if you weren't already able to swim." Which he suspects she already knows, but there are some people out there who just want to skip over swimming and go straight to diving. "Have you ever been snorkelling before?" That, too, will help if she has been. There are so many little things that can help the adjustment between floating on the surface and actually going down where there's less sun and the pressure increases significantly.

[lucked]

Readily taking the flippers and tucking them under her arm, Claire keeps a good pace with Mathias; though he's significantly taller than she is, Claire's spent enough of her life trying to keep up with her father's brisk step, easily adjusting her walk to match. It never ceases to amaze her, how easily people can come to meet and get to know one another on the island, and whether or not it's because she finds herself missing Peter more than she can express, having someone of his age is no small comfort.

"Um... kinda?" Claire answers after some hesitation, nose wrinkling and a barely contained grin on her lips. "I mean, I've used snorkels before and did the whole mouth breathing thing, which I think is all that requires, but the only time I used it was at the local YMCA, so. Chlorine-filled and very still waters made it a lot easier to get through."

[plntfood]

Mathias laughs, but it's helpful that she's learned certain techniques already. It means he can skip forward to regulator retrieval techniques, which means they can get into the water faster. "What about clearing your mask while under water?" he asks, though he knows that isn't always practiced with a snorkel. It's easy enough, and he thinks he can teach her without much trouble.

They're near the hut now and Mathias can hear Sam singing in the front yard and when they come into view, she's sitting in the middle of all the dogs, singing some sort of song to them. Only King twitches when Mathias and Claire come closer, his tail swishing back and forth, brushing Sam's nose with every sweep.

"You're in luck," he says dryly to Claire. "You will get to meet all the dogs today and it seems as though there is an introduction song." Sam is smiling and waving, but she has yet to stop singing and all the dogs names are mentioned at least once.

[lucked]

All other thought disappears as soon as Claire's eyes fall on the young girl, grinning toothily and waving about to the both of them from where she sits among the dogs. Claire's always loved children, from the very first day her parents brought Lyle back to the house, all wrinkly and grumpy, with fists that flailed against the soft padding of his crib. Although opportunities for babysitting weren't all too common back home, Claire needing to hold down the fort whenever her dad was on business trips and her mom away at dog shows, any chance she gets is one that she cherishes.

"Oh my god, she's adorable. I mean, the dogs too, believe me when I say that I know when I see a cute dog, since my mom used to take Mr. Muggles to compete at dog shows and everything, but," Claire laughs, glancing over at Mathias. "Is she yours? I've got a cousin on the island, also pretty young. Nate Petrelli, maybe you've heard of him. Whenever I see kids these days, I just wonder whether or not they'd make good playmates, I don't know. If I trusted myself more with that many kids, I'd totally open a preschool."

[plntfood]

"In a manner of speaking," Mathias answers, because Sam isn't his in that he fathered her, but he and Lucy are her primary caregivers now and he does love her very much. "Her parents are Jim and Pam Halpert, when they disappeared, my girlfriend, Veronica Mars became her guardian."

And now Veronica is gone, and he's charged with taking care of Sam, nothing he ever imagined. Three years ago he'd just been glad to have escaped from Mexico and now he's raising a child on his own, with the help of friends. "Sam, come say hi," he says and she gets up from the circle of dogs, brushing sand and dust off the dress she's wearing, then wanders over.

"Hi," she says shyly, looking down at the ground.

"This is Sam," Mathias says. "And Sam, this is Claire. I'm going to teach her how to dive."

[lucked]

She's so young. So very young, Claire thinks to herself, to have lost both her parents. All she can really hope is that the girl lost them early enough that the memory of them doesn't hurt. No matter what, when she grows up, it'll be frustrating not to know her birth parents, what they're like, the hobbies that they indulge in- but if Mathias is as good of a guardian as he seems to be, the pain of that will lessen, and it might help to know that her parents never abandoned her due to a lack of love or want, but instead because of the island's whims, so often cruel. It makes her think of Nate yet again, but for a different reason, and when Claire smiles at Sam, it isn't without that touch of sadness in her eyes, though she does her best to hide it.

"Hey there, Sam," she grins, more than tempted to reach out and give the girl's nose a bit of a squeeze- but as Sam already looks a bit shy, Claire certainly doesn't want to do anything to scare her further away. "It's so good to meet you! Mathias here was just telling me that he has all the stuff I need to go diving. Have you ever gone diving before?"

[plntfood]

"No," Sam says, but this is a topic she's comfortable with and she pauses for a moment, collecting her thoughts. "But he takes me swimming, he says it's important to know how to swim, so we go to the pools and we swim, sometimes with Mack and Flo, do you know them? They have dogs, too, Neil's their dad."

Mathias grins at Claire and shrugs. "Sometimes you can get her started on something and she won't stop." And other times she's quiet, content to sit and watch. He knows she can't possibly get that from him, but the two sides remind him so strongly of himself and his brother.

"Do you want to show Claire where I keep my equipment?" he asks and Sam nods, then starts to walk toward the hut. "You can come inside!" she tells Claire.

[lucked]

"It is important to know how to swim, definitely, especially on an island," Claire grins and nods in understanding, before glancing over towards Mathias with a brighter smile and a content exhale. "I'm pretty sure that I used to be like that, too, when I was her age. Actually, it's still pretty easy to get me caught up in something I feel real passionate about- but with my brother, it was the total opposite, he just wanted to play soccer and play video games, and communication got lost in the process. It freaked my parents out pretty badly, after having me."

With a soft laugh, she takes off after Sam, hesitantly entering the hut and biting her lower lip. Anywhere else, something like this would never happen, wandering into the hut of someone who's nearly a complete stranger- yet on Tabula Rasa, it seems almost commonplace. The stark difference never fails to amaze her.

[plntfood]

"I was quite quiet," Mathias says as he follows Claire inside. "My brother was not." That's been true of Henrich his whole life. Even now, he has vague, blurred memories of his squealing infant brother, memories of listening to him shriek whenever he was hungry. And memories of his mother say, 'You were never this loud,' which Mathias always took to be a compliment.

"This is the diving stuff," Sam says as they arrive at a small room off the main living space. "I don't play with it yet, but I will when I'm bigger and can fit it and that's why I'm learning how to swim."

Mathias steps forward to put his things away, then pulls out the second set of equipment. He's most concerned with the mask and the belt fitting properly, because he feels they can find other flippers in the box if they're needed. "Here, try this on," he says, handing the belt to Claire. "It's adjustable, but I just need to make sure the last hole on the belt is small enough for you."

[lucked]

With a laugh, Claire reaches out to ruffle Sam's hair, at the surprisingly thorough explanation. Then again, she thinks, she's been in that position before as well, watching after all of the cool hobbies that her father kept up, the things that her mother would do around the house, and wanting to follow in their footsteps as soon as possible. It doesn't hold as much anymore, but Claire thinks that had either of her parents been involved in diving too, she would have followed them straight into that as soon as possible.

Something filled with so much wonder, not mired in uncertainty.

"Well, you'd better grow up fast, then," Claire tells Sam. "Because I'd love to dive with you. Or even just swim, if you ever wanna. I'm a pretty good swimmer."

Taking the belt in hand, Claire nods her thanks to Mathias and tugs the belt as tight as possible. "Oh, thank goodness," she laughs, when the last loop seems to fit it around her snugly. "I'm not that unreasonably tiny, then."

[plntfood]

Mathias nods, glad that the equipment will fit Claire. The mask is easy enough to adjust, he knows they'll have no real problems there and if she wants a wetsuit, the box is usually good enough to provide. They'll have to start using one tank anyway, so he isn't worried about making sure that fits just yet.

"Not as small as me," Sam says to Claire. "I'm short."

Mathias laughs a little and nods his agreement. "But you will get tall. Your dad was very tall."

"Like you," Sam says, then wanders toward her crayons and colouring books that are spread out in the main room.

Turning back to Claire, he smiles and says, "The equipment fits, that's the first step. Before we actually go diving I'll have to teach you a few safety techniques. A way to find your regulator if you drop it, because the mask will make it difficult to see much side to side." Back home, he knows there are courses that people are required to take, certificates that they earn, but although he has his, he doesn't feel qualified to start telling people when they're certified. All he can do is teach them to be safe.